“Some people see me as an alchemist because I transform gold,” says Paulo. “We produce all our own alloys, and that’s really important for Chopard.” I’m speaking to the artisan in the gold foundry that is the heart of everything the house stands for – and the facility that allows Chopard to ensure their gold is 100% ethical. 

It’s in this unassuming room that the brand’s gold, be it yellow or pink, is melted at over 1,000ºC, then cooled in large concrete blocks. That substantial heft of metal is rolled like pasta dough and threaded, with surprising ease, through a machine that slowly compresses the block made by Paulo and his colleague over 50 times until it is at the desired width. “Some people say it is repetitive, but it depends on the person and the emotion the gold bar brings,” says the artisan. “Even though it is physical, it is something you have to love. If you don’t you can still do it, but the emotion is missing.” Before it comes to Paulo, this gold is sourced from artisanal and small-scale mines in Peru and Colombia that participate in the not-for-profit Swiss Better Gold Association (SBGA) or Fairtrade certification schemes.

This overall emphasis on care, attention, and emotion encapsulates the approach of the team here at Chopard’s Manufacture in Meyrin, just outside Geneva. The atmosphere is almost collegiate. Rather than factory-style production lines where watchmakers are hunched over their benches in silence, in the Poinçon de Genève workshop they huddle around microscopes admiring each other’s work or asking for advice. As Grand Complication artisan Christophe explains, “working on Poinçon de Genève watches requires us to be more cautious, more attentive to the parts with all their extra decoration.” He continues: “It’s a real team effort. Some think we work all alone, but that's not true. We help each other a lot. We all have different perspectives on what's happening, and it's important to talk so we can continually improve.” Elsewhere, noticeboards contain information about yoga classes, there are birthday collection boxes on the side, and various members of staff have pictures of themselves at a “Chopard Loves Cinema” event. It is clear that the notion of this being a family business doesn’t stop with the Scheufeles.

Founded in 1860 by Louis-Ulysse Chopard, when it specialised in pocket watches and chronometers, Chopard was passed on to Louis-Ulysse’s son Paul-Louis, and then grandson Paul-André. Having no family members to pass it on to, Paul-André sold the business in 1963 to Karl Scheufele III, a German jeweller and watchmaker who imported Swiss movements for in-house assembly and was anxious to obtain a watch brand to help establish himself in Switzerland. Son and daughter Karl-Friedrich and Caroline joined in the 1980s and became co-presidents in 2001. Which brings us here to Meyrin, and the manufacture into which Chopard moved in 1974 and where its signature free-floating, or dancing, diamonds were conceived.

At first glance, the building feels more like a modernist labyrinth than a Swiss Manufacture. Unlike many others, Chopard’s version feels as though it is made up of separate workshops, each with their own identity and cast of characters. Upstairs from the lobby is a space that registers more like an art gallery, with an impressive selection from Karl-Friedrich’s personal collection on display. From there it’s on to the bracelet assembly department. Chopard is especially proud of keeping this particular part of the process in house. Normally a job farmed out to third-party suppliers, Chopard has parlayed its jewellery experience into making watch bracelets. This, as the bracelet artisan explains, is an important craft to master, especially as the brand has recently upped the ante with its new, more complicated, Alpine Eagle design. Single-handedly undertaking every stage of the process from assembly to polishing out any imperfections, she also has to contend with graduated links at whose centre is a recess into which the polished sections are placed – a more complex process than simply polishing the existing steel.

Chopard hasn’t always operated a vertical manufacture. Until 1997 it was using movements sourced from F. Piguet, which was bought by the Swatch Group in 1992 and merged into Blancpain in 2010. Keen to elevate Chopard to the same horological echelons as Patek Philippe, in 1996 Karl-Friedrich set up another manufacture in Fleurier, located in the Val-de-Travers region of Switzerland. For a time, Michel Parmigiani was involved in making prototypes for this new venture, and current Rolex CEO Jean-Frédéric Dufour, then fiancé to Karl-Friedrich’s wife’s best friend, was allegedly convinced by Karl-Friedrich’s mother to quit his career in banking and help set up. For three years Chopard had been working on a movement that was thin but to which complication modules could be added: one with a more than average power reserve demanding two barrels, as well as a small rotor so all this mechanical marvellousness could be seen through the sapphire caseback. On top of that, Karl-Friedrich wanted it to be worthy of the Poinçon de Genève, or Geneva Seal – a certification issued by the Canton of Geneva for exceptionally finished and decorated timepieces, though Chopard also subjects its watches to accuracy tests.

Unveiled in 1996 and placed in the inaugural watch of the L.U.C 1860 collection in 1997, the 1.96 put Chopard on its path to being considered a serious watchmaker and embodied Karl-Friedrich’s personal philosophy that the company should always strive to “add some kind of useful innovation in every movement we set out to do”. This is evident in 2000’s Quattro – a four-barrel movement with a nine-day power reserve – and in the sapphire-crystal chiming technology used in the L.U.C Full Strike and Strike One. Both watches contain a gong made from a single piece of sapphire crystal and are examples of how Chopard constantly strives to blend the contemporary with the traditional. This is illustrated perfectly in the contrast between the cutting-edge machinery and computers in the control centre, where the watches are put through tests of precision, power reserve, water resistance – and, if they have it, chronograph running – and the oasises of calm to be found elsewhere. In the quiet calm of the Ateliers Métiers d’Art, we come across a husband-and-wife duo – both tattooed, as it happens, complete with undercuts – applying straw marquetry to dials, and engraving tiny figures into cases.

“Since I was 14, I knew I wanted to work with my hands,” explains Julie, one half of the couple. “I thought I’d try sculpting with wood but then I went to École Boulle [the highly regarded college of fine arts and crafts and applied arts in Paris] and started to take hand engraving courses.” Julie’s particular interest is creating volume with her works of art, whereas Davide specialises more in straw marquetry and micropainting. “With a watch you usually have such little depth to work with that we use different finishes such as micropainting with patina to help create the [impression of it],” she says. This duo are responsible for such creations as the L.U.C Full Strike Día de los Muertos, with its grinning multi-coloured gemstone calaveras and intricately carved bezel and case made from 18-carat 100% ethical gold (which brings us back to Paulo, and his emotional bars).

Chopard’s journey to using 100% recycled or fair-mined gold started back in 2018. “I think we say we're looking at our biggest milestone being that we are going to use 100% ethical gold which is responsibly sourced, either accredited by Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC) or by the Swiss Better Gold Association (SBGA), which we have been a part of since the end of last year,” explained Karl-Friedrich at a press conference at Baselworld in March of that year. This brief expanded to include the steel used by the business. When it launched the Alpine Eagle in 2019, a modern reimagining of the 1980s sports-chic St Moritz, it also unveiled a new kind of metal called Lucent Steel. Interestingly, that’s one of the few things Chopard doesn’t make in house, instead created with the help of voestalpine High Performance Metals Suisse and voestalpine BÖHLER Edelstahl, based in Switzerland and Austria, respectively. The steel is 80% recycled, with the material coming from industrial scraps from Swiss watchmakers, as well as high-grade steel from the medical, aerospace, and automotive industries. Chopard, ever ambitious, hopes to get this up to 90% recycled material by 2028.

Given all the conversations that happen around sustainability now, it’s easy to forget how ground-breaking this announcement was. “Chopard’s impact on sustainability in jewellery and watchmaking has been nothing short of profound,” explains Claire Adler, industry veteran and PR director. “In 2018, it took the lead with a pioneering, bold commitment: 100% ethical gold in all products. Its dazzling green take on the traditional red carpets wasn’t just PR, it was a statement. Its push for traceability from mine to market, use of renewable materials like Lucent Steel, and support for artisanal mining with the Alliance for Responsible Mining have all raised the bar for others to follow. Chopard has made the industry confront its supply chains.”

As impressive as Chopard’s stance has been, Adler is keen to point out that it has not always been perfect. Despite its material commitments, the house has been found wanting in other areas such as climate action and biodiversity. “Our pole position came under fire in a 2023 WWF report ranking it at the bottom, alongside revered horological icons like Audemars Piguet and Patek Philippe,” she says, but adds that with its winning the first ever Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) eco-innovation award (basically, the watch world’s equivalent of the Oscars) its sustainable status was more than cemented.

If Chopard chooses not to spin a myth of austere perfection, that might be why it possesses a charm that others do not. Like its ambassador Julia Roberts, it may exude glamour, but it’s a kind of glamour that feels accessible, even fun. Most Manufacture tours are cold, often impersonal experiences, where watchmakers are viewed like specimens through glass windows. Touring Chopard, you feel the collaboration that goes into every piece. Every person is proud to be there, and to be a part of these creations: from those working on Grand Complications to Rodeline, the polishing artisan, who started at Chopard at 15 and, in her words, “really fell in love with the job” and can’t see herself doing anything else. As Paulo says of his work with gold, “I help people dream. In any case, I think, and I’m sure, there’s a part of me in every bar. We’ll be gone one day, but these noble metals will be here forever.”